A Look At California’s Plug-In Electric Car Sales Compared To Rest Of U.S.

Cumulative (since December 2010) plug-in electric car sales in the U.S. exceeded 407,000 at the end of January 2016 (check our data).

Last month brought growth and we hope that every month in 2016 will set its own sales record this year after the not-so-strong 2015.

According to the California Plug-In Electric Vehicle Collaborative, some 45% of all U.S. sales comes from a single state – California.

Nationwide: 407,378

California: 184,657

In January the share was even higher – 55%:

Nationwide: 6,713

California: 3,692

California is the largest car market in the U.S. and a rather wealthy state, with suitable weather for EVs, the largest portfolio of EVs available, and a strong set of state incentives. All those factors combined place California nearly ahead of the 49 other states combined.

DCFC using CCS from SoCal to NoCal is possible as of about Oct. 2015 along 101. Chademo has been possible along 99 for much longer. There are choke points (ie, just one DCFC for 60 miles), but it’s possible. I fancy a fictional one day race in my “The great trans California EV race” blog post, maybe ending in CARB office in Sacramento.

The running out of the SO HOV (green) stickers for PHEVs is likely to put a big dent in their sales (once the initial Gen 2 Volt frenzy has passed), unless it’s extended again. So far I haven’t seen any sign of such an action by the legislature.

There’s also the income cap to qualify for state rebates beginning next month, which may hurt Tesla/BMW/Mercedes/Porsche/Volvo PEV sales a bit. But to most of those customers it’s a minor issue.